CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — On Mar. 11, 2020, the NBA decided to suspend its season, citing concerns of COVID-19.
Over the next several days, a lot changed.
“I remember we had our staff, no one knew what was going on,” said Curt Flowers, the owner of Coral Bean Cafe, “and we said 'everyone go home.'”
Flowers said for weeks he was the only one at the Corpus Christi coffee shop. He said he cleaned up the building and worked on marketing, hoping to attract customers to visit.
“We made sure that we gave the absolute best quality coffee we possibly could, because otherwise it was like 'who is going to leave their house?' And if they do leave their house during this chaotic time, where are they going to go?” he said.
Perhaps, nothing changed as much as the medical industry.
“At that time, there was tremendous uncertainty, even at the national level,” said Dr. Jaime Fergie, the Director of Infectious Diseases at Driscoll Children’s Hospital, about the beginning of the pandemic.
Fergie said the biggest question at the start of the pandemic was how to keep patients and staff safe.
Through the pandemic, many were working from home, and Zoom became a household name.
“I miss the live interaction. This is very convenient, clearly, but the human touch is a little bit lost there,” Fergie said. “So, we are all doing these meetings constantly, and I’m sure every industry and every profession are doing this more than ever. I think some of this will remain even after the pandemic.”
Fergie said he has done hundreds of Zoom meetings over the last two years.
One thing that has changed in Fergie’s day-to-day life, is wearing a mask, and being used to wearing a mask.
“I think we all have been wearing masks all the time, and you have the feeling like something is missing when you don’t have a mask on,” he said. “That has certainly changed.”
While things are getting closer to back to normal for many, Flowers said it’s not quite normal at the Coral Bean Cafe.
“One week we’ll be busy, then something will pop up on the news, and then it’s almost a ghost town in here,” he said. “So, there’s no normal day yet.”